Dow Jones declines following analyst note

DavidB. Wilkerson

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Dow Jones & Co. shares moved lower after a Pali Research analyst speculated that News Corp. would back away from its $5 billion bid for the newspaper publisher.

Most media shares were higher on the session, though, moving in step with the broader market.

Richard Greenfield of Pali told clients that it's "silly" for News Corp. to "simply stand around endlessly waiting for the Bancroft family to change their minds." He added that he expects the company to drop its offer within "the next couple of weeks." See full story.

News Corp.'s nonvoting shares
NWS
were up 1% at $22.31, while Dow Jones
DJ
was down 3.5% at $51.12.

News Corp.
NWS, +1.64%
has offered to buy Dow Jones for $60 a share -- a premium of more than 60% to the company's share price prior to bid. Dow Jones is the parent company of MarketWatch, as well as The Wall Street Journal and other properties.

Elsewhere, cable stocks were mostly higher. Citigroup's Jason Bazinet upgraded Comcast and Time Warner Cable to buy/medium risk from the bank's hold/medium risk rating category. He lifted his price target on Comcast to $33 from $30 and on Time Warner Cable to $44 from $42.

The analyst said that while capital expenditures will remain high for each company as revenue growth rises sharply, "the marginal cable investor" is willing to accept that scenario.

British cable operator Virgin Media
VMED
was up 7% at $26.60 amid speculation that it could become the target of a leveraged buyout. See full story.

Warner Music Group
WMG
was down nearly 1% to $17.24 after record label EMI Group said Monday that it's backing an offer of 2.4 billion pounds ($4.7 billion) from British private-equity house Terra Firma, with the bid coming on the same day the recorded music group reported a 264 million pound annual loss. See full story.

Shares of EMI (EMI) surged 9.2% to 273 pence, possibly on hopes that Warner Music would come back with a sweetened offer.

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